Langford has put its signature rubber-wheeled trolley buses up for sale.
Once a symbol of the growing city, the aging diesel buses painted red and green were used as free or by-donation transportation around downtown Langford and were essential to filling B.C. Transit gaps between the core and shopping malls and recreation facilities.
But as B.C. Transit service improved, the trolleys have essentially been mothballed since 2017, used only occasionally for Canada Day and Christmas parades.
At a committee of the whole meeting in February during the budget process, council voted to sell the three trolleys and on Saturday issued a request for proposals to find buyers.
“They were so loved and quite iconic, and they were a brand for Langford with street lights and trolley stops,” Coun. Lillian Szpak said Saturday.
“But at the end of the day, they were old, they needed maintenance and it wasn’t cost effective — and we got much better transit service.”
>See TROLLEY BUSES, A2
The motion to sell the trolleys and explore options for the use of the land where the buses are stored on Happy Valley Road was supported in a 4-to-3 vote.
Mayor Scott Goodmanson and councillors. Mary Wagner and Mark Morley were opposed.
The trolleys were a regular sight around Langford for more than a decade starting in 2007, logging thousands of kilometres on routes that looped around Langford with stops at City Centre Park, Westshore Town Centre, Goldstream, Langford Town Centre, Millstream Village and Costco.
During their peak year in 2015, the buses carried 43,550 passengers.
But a report to council in 2023 said the three buses — purchased between 2007 and 2013 for about $80,000 each — were starting to wear out and increasing repair costs eventually scuttled the service. Costs to operate the trolleys rose to more than $220,000 a year, while donations, advertising and rentals barely covered 10% of that.
The staff report said only one of the three trolleys actually runs, although another could be fixed. The third is for spare parts.
For the five years ending in 2023, the city has averaged $6,000 in annual maintenance costs and $5,000 in annual insurance costs for the three trolleys.
Szpak said liquidating the buses is “not without sentimental attachment and emotion in the community. It’s hard to do that, but you have to make those hard choices.”
She said the trolleys, however, were not accessible for all and were polluters. “But the idea of them was adorable,” she said. “I rode them a lot and saw lots of mothers with children, and it was a fun thing.”
The request for proposals for the trolleys, posted on the city’s website, langford.ca, closes on Nov. 14
